Linux From Scratch - Version JH-20120423

Preface

viii. Typography

To make things easier to follow, there are a few typographical
conventions used throughout this book. This section contains some
examples of the typographical format found throughout Linux From
Scratch.

./configure --prefix=/usr

This form of text is designed to be typed exactly as seen unless
otherwise noted in the surrounding text. It is also used in the
explanation sections to identify which of the commands is being
referenced.

In some cases, a logical line is extended to two or more physical
lines with a backslash at the end of the line.

This format is used for hyperlinks both within the LFS community and
to external pages. It includes HOWTOs, download locations, and
websites.

cat > $LFS/etc/group << "EOF"
root:x:0:
bin:x:1:
......
EOF

This format is used when creating configuration files. The first
command tells the system to create the file $LFS/etc/group from whatever is typed on the
following lines until the sequence End Of File (EOF) is encountered.
Therefore, this entire section is generally typed as seen.

<REPLACED TEXT>

This format is used to encapsulate text that is not to be typed as
seen or for copy-and-paste operations.

[OPTIONAL TEXT]

This format is used to encapsulate text that is optional.

passwd(5)

This format is used to refer to a specific manual (man) page. The
number inside parentheses indicates a specific section inside the
manuals. For example, passwd has two man pages. Per LFS
installation instructions, those two man pages will be located at
/usr/share/man/man1/passwd.1 and
/usr/share/man/man5/passwd.5. When the
book uses passwd(5) it is specifically
referring to /usr/share/man/man5/passwd.5. man passwd will print the first man
page it finds that matches “passwd”, which will be /usr/share/man/man1/passwd.1. For this example, you
will need to run man 5
passwd in order to read the specific page being
referred to. It should be noted that most man pages do not have
duplicate page names in different sections. Therefore, man <program
name> is generally sufficient.